The Overwatch World Cup Playoffs are Underway!

Published on: 02/11/2018

That’s right, it’s officially BlizzCon time and with it, the Overwatch World Cup Playoffs! The opening ceremony for this year’s main BlizzCon event is only a few hours away at the Anaheim Convention Center in sunny California. After an hour of the opening festivities, Blizzard is jumping straight in with the action as the final stages of their tournaments kick off.

Among those games, the Overwatch World Cup 2018 will move into the playoffs and the first two rounds, the quarter and semifinals are set to take place. Each round of matches has a hefty two-hour time slot scheduled in and only the best of the best will be crowned winners.

Blizzard Entertainment

If you want to catch the action you’ll need to head on over to the Arena, or for those of you not in California, tune in online to ensure you don’t miss out. As the final 8 countries are whittled down to the final 4, and the final 2, the players will need to use all of their skill and teamwork to overcome the competition.

If you are unsure, here’s how the teams line up. The United Kingdom is set to face off against the USA, while Australia and South Korea duke it out. China, a fan favorite and penciled as a team to watch are going up against Finland, meanwhile, Canada is going head to head with the tournaments other strong contenders, France.

So far all of these teams have performed well, and it will be exciting to see who makes it through the initial quarterfinal rounds today and tomorrow morning. There will be no rest for the victorious though, as they’ll be straight into the semifinals tomorrow afternoon and the finals just over two hours later.

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All of the action will be wrapped up by the end of Saturday night, leaving fans the rest of Sunday to absorb the results while the closing ceremony takes place. If you’re lucky enough to be at BlizzCon this year, but can’t get close to the action there are a few other Overwatch themed events such as talks on the voices of Overwatch, so check our schedule if you’re not able to watch one of the rounds.

The maps for this year’s quarterfinal rounds are Ilios, Busan and Lijiang Tower all of which offer a variety of opportunities that should make for some interesting plays. Exactly how the teams will use the environments to their advantage is part of what makes watching these matches so great, and no doubt we’ll see some innovative teamwork over the coming two days.

The quarterfinal rounds are utilizing a best-of-five format, and game types as follows. The first map will be a control match, the second will be a hybrid, assault for the third, escort for the fifth and the final map per match will be another control round. The total prize pool is $488,000 with bonuses being awarded to winners of each group round. There’s everything to play for so make sure you don’t miss out!